OBJECTIVES: To describe sleep EEG patterns of neonates, and infants with microcephaly due to congenital Zika virus (ZikV) syndrome. METHODS: A descriptive case series of EEGs performed in a cohort of neonates with microcephaly monitored from October 2015 to February 2016 at a University Hospital in Northeast Brazil. Infants were investigated following an established protocol that includes EEG, neuroimaging studies, PCR and specific antibodies for ZikV detection...

This paper provides an overview of current progress in the technological advances and the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, as presented by participants of the Fourth Annual DBS Think Tank, which was convened in March 2016 in conjunction with the Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration at the University of Florida, Gainesveille FL, USA. The Think Tank discussions first focused on policy and advocacy in DBS research and clinical practice, formation of registries, and issues involving the use of DBS in the treatment of Tourette Syndrome...

OBJECTIVE: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with cognitive and motor deficits, and poses a significant personal, societal, and economic burden. One mechanism by which TBI is thought to affect cognition and behaviour is through changes in functional connectivity. Graph theory is a powerful framework for quantifying topological features of neuroimaging-derived functional networks. The objective of this paper is to review studies examining functional connectivity in TBI with an emphasis on graph theoretical analysis that is proving to be valuable in uncovering network abnormalities in this condition...

Myles, J.B., S. Rossell, A. Phillipou, Thomas, E and C. Gurvich. A systematic review of saccadic eye movements across the schizophrenia continuum: Characterisation, pathophysiology and genetic associations. NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV REV 21(1) XXX-XXX, 2015. One of the cognitive hallmarks of schizophrenia is impaired eye movements, particularly for the antisaccade task. Less saccade research has been conducted in relation to the broader schizophrenia continuum, that is, people with high schizotypy or first-degree relatives of people with schizophrenia...

Progressive and relatively circumscribed loss of semantic knowledge, referred to as semantic dementia (SD) which falls under the broader umbrella of frontotemporal dementia, was officially identified as a clinical syndrome less than 50 years ago. Here, we review recent neuroimaging, pathological, and genetic research in SD. From a neuroimaging perspective, SD is characterised by hallmark asymmetrical atrophy of the anterior temporal pole and anterior fusiform gyrus, which is usually left lateralised. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have revealed widespread changes in connectivity, implicating the anterior temporal regions in semantic deficits in SD...

Ultra High Field (UHF) MRI requires improved gradient and shim performance to fully realize the promised gains (SNR as well as spatial, spectral, diffusion resolution) that higher main magnetic fields offer. Both the more challenging UHF environment by itself, as well as the higher currents used in high performance coils, require a deeper understanding combined with sophisticated engineering modeling and construction, to optimize gradient and shim hardware for safe operation and for highest image quality. This review summarizes the basics of gradient and shim technologies, and outlines a number of UHF-related challenges and solutions...

Several lines of research support the hypothesis that migraine is a spectrum of illness, with clinical symptoms that vary along a continuum from episodic migraine to chronic migraine. Physiologic changes may result in episodic migraine evolving into chronic migraine over months to years in susceptible individuals. With chronification, headache frequency increases, becoming more disabling and less responsive to therapy. Neurophysiologic and functional imaging research has reported that chronic migraine may be associated with severity-specific metabolic, functional, and structural abnormalities in the brainstem...

Metacognition refers to the monitoring and regulation of cognitive processes and its impairment can lead to a lack of self-awareness of deficits, or anosognosia. In the context of different neurological and psychiatric disorders (e.g., traumatic brain injury, dementia, and schizophrenia), studies have shown that patients who present impairments in metacognitive abilities may be able to recognize such difficulties in others and in themselves when exposed to material in a third-person perspective. Considering that metacognitive impairments are an important characteristic of dementia, especially in Alzheimer's Disease (AD), studies of the relationship between metacognition and perspective-taking may be relevant to improve the quality of life of people with dementia...

The authors aimed to compare the opening pressures of children with demyelinating disease to children with primary intracranial hypertension. Medical records were reviewed for a primary diagnosis of demyelinating disease, or primary intracranial hypertension. Diagnosis of demyelinating disease was made according to either the 2007 or 2012 International Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Study Group criteria. Primary intracranial hypertension diagnosis was confirmed by presence of elevated opening pressure, normal cerebrospinal fluid composition and neuroimaging...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has allowed the noninvasive study of task-based and resting-state brain dynamics in humans by inferring neural activity from blood-oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) signal changes. An accurate interpretation of the hemodynamic changes that underlie fMRI signals depends on the understanding of the quantitative relationship between changes in neural activity and changes in cerebral blood flow, oxygenation and volume. While there has been extensive study of neurovascular coupling in anesthetized animal models, anesthesia causes large disruptions of brain metabolism, neural responsiveness and cardiovascular function...

It is a truism that care of the patient with an acutely severe neurologic illness starts with a full neurologic examination. Neurologic examination is followed by tests (neuroimaging and laboratory) resulting in a diagnosis (presumptive or definitive) and treatment (definitive or preemptive) and followed by admission for supportive care and more treatment. The sequence of decisions depends on the diagnosis, but treatment may be needed to diagnose a neurologic disorder. To find out what underlies the acute presentation of certain neurologic conditions requires (1) interpretation of neurologic findings, (2) interpretation of neuroimaging, (3) linking laboratory abnormalities to certain clinical neurologic findings, and (4) evaluation of improvement or refractoriness after treatment...

Objective: To report the clinical, genetic and ultrastructural pathological features of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCLs) in 5 Chinese patients. Methods: A total of 5 patients with NCLs were collected from 2013 to 2015 diagnosed by the department of pediatrics of Beijing Tian Tan Hospital. Their clinical, electrophysiological and neuroimaging data of the patients were reviewed.A total of 9 underlying genes of NCLs were tested in 4 cases and their parents.Ultrastructural pathology by skin biopsy was performed in 3 cases respectively...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Studies investigating postnatal brain growth disorders inform the biology underlying the development of human brain circuitry. This research is becoming increasingly important for the diagnosis and treatment of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and related disorders. Here, we review recent research on typical and abnormal postnatal brain growth and examine potential biological mechanisms. RECENT FINDINGS: Clinically, brain growth disorders are heralded by diverging head size for a given age and sex, but are more precisely characterized by brain imaging, post-mortem analysis, and animal model studies...

A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that multiple sources of salience tune attentional sets toward aspects of the environment, including affectively and motivationally significant categories of stimuli such as angry faces and reward-associated target locations. Recent evidence further indicates that objects that have gained personal significance through ownership can elicit similar attentional prioritization. Here we discuss current research on sources of attentional prioritization that shape our awareness of the visual world from moment to moment and the underlying neural systems and contextualize what is known about attentional prioritization of our possessions within that research...

Circulatory arrest (CA) remains a major unresolved public health problem in the United States; the annual incidence of which is ~0.50 to 0.55 per 1000 population. Despite seminal advances in therapeutic approaches over the past several decades, brain injury continues to be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality after CA. In brief, CA typically results in global cerebral ischemia leading to delayed neuronal death in the hippocampal pyramidal cells as well as in the cortical layers. The dynamic changes occurring in neurons after CA are still unclear, and predicting these neurological changes in the brain still remains a difficult issue...

Importance: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system traditionally characterized by an initial relapsing-remitting clinical course and focal inflammatory lesions that have a predilection for the periventricular white matter. Recently, however, histopathologic and imaging studies have illustrated a more complex pathologic substrate involving cortical demyelination, gray matter atrophy, and meningeal inflammation. Neuroimaging advances have facilitated improved detection of cortical pathology, but our understanding of the pathogenesis of cortical disease remains incomplete...

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) occur in psychotic disorders, but also as a symptom of other conditions and even in healthy people. Several current theories on the origin of AVH converge, with neuroimaging studies suggesting that the language, auditory and memory/limbic networks are of particular relevance. However, reconciliation of these theories with experimental evidence is missing. We review 50 studies investigating functional (EEG and fMRI) and anatomic (diffusion tensor imaging) connectivity in these networks, and explore the evidence supporting abnormal connectivity in these networks associated with AVH...

Some people have a profound dissatisfaction with what is considered an able-bodied state by most others. These individuals desire to be disabled, by conventional standards. In this Review, we integrate research findings about the desire for a major limb amputation or paralysis (xenomelia). Neuropsychological and neuroimaging explorations of xenomelia show functional and structural abnormalities in predominantly right hemisphere cortical circuits of higher-order bodily representation, including affective and sexual aspects of corporeal awareness...

The exact role of the brainstem in the control of body functions is not yet well known and the same applies to the influence of general anaesthesia on brainstem functions. Nevertheless in all general anaesthesia the anaesthesiologist should be aware of the interaction of anaesthetic drugs and brainstem function in relation to whole body homeostasis. As a result of this interaction there will be changes in consciousness, protective reflexes, breathing pattern, heart rate, temperature or arterial blood pressure to name a few...